Director, Operations Manager, Management

The Business

We are partnering with a growing mental health provider delivering specialist residential and community-based services across the Midlands.

The organisation has strong clinical foundations and is now entering a performance-focused phase - driving operational discipline, cultural alignment and scalable growth.

This is not a traditional HR role.

This is about performance, accountability and commercial impact.

The People Director will sit on the Executive Team and lead the people agenda with a clear mandate:

• Drive workforce performance across multi-site services
• Embed a high-accountability, high-support culture
• Improve retention and reduce agency dependency
• Strengthen leadership capability at Registered Manager and regional level
• Align people strategy directly to EBITDA, occupancy and quality outcomes

You will own the full People function - HR, ER, L&D, Talent, Workforce Planning and Reward, but with a clear performance lens.

Within 12–24 months, you will have:

• Improved retention and reduced agency usage
• Elevated leadership standards across operational teams
• Embedded consistent performance management frameworks
• Reduced employee relations risk through proactive management
• Strengthened engagement while raising accountability
• Positioned the workforce to support expansion and potential M&A

This is about turning culture into competitive advantage.

• Develop and deliver a commercially aligned People Strategy
• Partner with the CEO and COO to improve operational KPIs
• Drive leadership development and succession planning
• Implement robust performance management frameworks
• Lead organisational design through periods of change
• Support growth initiatives including new service mobilisation
• Ensure compliance within a regulated, CQC-led environment

You will be:

• An experienced HR Director / People Director within healthcare, mental health or social care
• Commercially literate, comfortable discussing margin, cost control and productivity
• Experienced in multi-site, operationally complex environments
• Confident leading cultural change in performance-challenged environments
• Credible at Board level
• Pragmatic and resilient, able to balance empathy with accountability

Private equity exposure would be advantageous but is not essential.

Mental health providers operate in challenging labour markets. The organisations that win are those that align culture, leadership and commercial discipline.

This is an opportunity to shape the future of a growing provider - influencing quality, stability and profitability through people leadership.